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Everything posted by christofloffer

hey folks, i got something this time. i am still not doing to well with inspiration these days. i tried several tunes but i either lost interest quickly (really not getting on well with drums these days) or they sounded so bad that i couldnt insult your ears with them. so i went for another one instrument, one track and one take approach like i did before. it was a toss up in the end between "Landslide" and "Is there anybody out there" but i couldnt get close to a clean take of floyd so landslide won out.

hi folks, i have been rather absent recently thanks to a particularly stubborn case of writers block. i have just been struggling to feel musically inspired. i had a couple of tunes for the comp recently but i never got past a quick record of a basic idea. so i decided to throw something together this morning and get it out and maybe i can kickstart my inclination again. so this was all done in an hour or so and each track was only recorded once, so dont expect a masterpiece.
the tune is meant to fit the scene of a couple of stoners sitting in the grass talking about how we will colonise the moon and the physics of garden maintenance. no, of course its not based on personal experience, how could you think such a thing? you must be some kind of crazy person. i dont have to listen to these wild accusations! (it was a long time ago😜)

i am looking for some input, suggestions and opinions. i am working on a new item for our business, i have tried a few different types of guitar stands but so far they have all come up short in terms of expense, style or stability. i have settled on this design as its a bit different from the more generic types yet still stable, sturdy and (in my opinion) aesthetically pleasing. obviously my particular style of work is not for everyone as it is very much on the rustic end of things but much like my furniture it seems to appeal to quite a few people. all my stuff is made in a very traditional way and with a bare minimum of machinery, i like to work this way as i think it makes the timber more attractive because you follow the knots rather than just sawing through them. so this is the first one of this style, in theory it could be made to order to support any number of guitars, is all solid hardwood timber and its lighter than you would think and doesnt screen off your guitars as much a some other types. so i would really appreciate some thought on the following.
what kind of price you would expect to see something like this at, or how much you would expect to pay to have one made specially? obviously we all like a bargain but i have to be logical and there is time and costs involved. i have seen other more plain designs around for what i think is too much so i would like to be as reasonable as possible and still have them worth making.
what kind of finish you would prefer? this particular one is without a finish, its is made of ash which is very clean and neutral so wouldnt cause any staining of the guitar finish but as i said its the first one so things can change later. other finishes could be stains, varnish (hard or soft), oils, wax or paint. although paint would be a bit daft in my opinion as it would seriously detract from the aesthetic.
would you prefer padding of some sort? this is my biggest sticking point. i use a thing like this when i am recording and swapping guitars a lot and i have not marked my guitars as i am careful, however i know there is a lot to be said for eliminating any risk of it. currently the best plan for padding is to use soft leather in the cradle and where the neck sits up top. we could just chuck some foam on there but that would be too cheap and tacky for what its supposed to be.
would you be prepared for self assembly? one thing about this as a design is that the fitting is nice and modular and could be made to be permanently fixed, pegged, a couple of fixed sections that slot together or entirely collapsible. it could be supplied with screws and pre-drilled holes as a basic form of self assembly, although i think screws detract from it. it could also be supplied with drilled holes and dowels to knock in yourself, quite permanent and would be more in keeping with the style. alternatively it could be made in a way that has no fixings and could therefore be entirely collapsible with no more than a light mallet.
i am not going for the hard sell here, these will be available soon but for the moment i would just like some opinions from people who would use them. the folks on here are a good broad mix so i cant think of a better place to ask. i'm not made of glass so if you dont like it feel free to say why, its basically a prototype so everything is valid.

the clearance at the bottom for the bass is pretty small, only about a half inch. the acoustic sits higher, about an inch or so. the bass did sit closer than i was expecting as i was working from the acoustic while i was eyeballing things and hadnt entirely accounted for the smaller body of an electric. i would probably bring the bars at the bottom at least an inch closer together next time. i was a little burned by a previous attempt which had the guitar facing out like a normal single stand and the acoustic was really unstable thanks to the bars being too close. in hindsight this design would not suffer in the same way. but hey, thats the beauty of making a test one first.
i am taking a look at some types of leather i could get as the type used would dictate how its fitted. the other way would be to use cord/soft rope wrapping. i have used wrapping on other things and it looks pretty good, if a bit nautical, and provides a good amount of padding.
thanks for the input.

hi folks, been out for a bit except for coming to vote. i have been in a weird place with music for a while and writing has been almost impossible. that said, i have got something for this one. not that it particularly lines up with the pic but aside from a compilation of bear sounds (very nearly happened) i couldnt see anything that would. the tune as a whole didnt quite gel the way i wanted it to, but i am putting that down to a severe lack of practice over the last few months.

ok, i got something in this time. sorry for being quite absent recently, been struggling with music recently. so the quality of this is really quite poor but its just not going to get any better so its in as it is.

well i have something, not very good though. still not doing well on the inspiration side of things and this was as far as i got. its dead simple guitar work but it seems light enough to suit.
https://soundcloud.com/christofloffer/twee-little-pixie

i have been out for a couple of months, been rather lacking in inspiration recently. hardly been playing anything at all so there wasnt much hope for anything composition wise. i decided to try and get back in to things though. so this is based around having a head full of acid at the fair. i wanted it to sound like the fair was just off kilter so everything just seem not quite right. i went for the tradition waltz style tunes as a basis. not sure if it works but a proper tune wasnt very forthcoming so i figured something closer to a soundscape would serve. the human noises are courtesy of my mum and little brother.
https://soundcloud.com/christofloffer/acid-at-the-carnival

I always loved the Stiff Little Fingers version of Johnny Was. Oh and the Johnny Cash version of One, in my opinion its a much better version than the U2 one. I like covers that step away from the original a bit, not enough to lose the soul but enough for it to be something in its own right.

ok, i got one for this month. i think i got the keyboard to sound reasonable, although i can still hear moments of cut-off sustain but hopefully they get lost a bit with the touch of extra reverb. i really like the verse bass line, it was surprisingly fluid to play and just felt nice. i am liking messing around with ambient guitar techniques at the moment too as the string effects on the keyboard are laughable, and i think the guitar made for a nicer sound. it is a strange thing given that something so slow can be messed up by a slightly mistimed movement and i still find it hard to get a consistent sound. i think it came out ok given that i am only using a single effects processor and most of the guides use multiple delay and reverb pedals to get the sound.
https://soundcloud.com/christofloffer/the-forgotten-king
as for the VST's and things, i honestly have no idea how to use them. i have watched a load of guides and tried a few times but they never seem to work. besides i like to do things in such a way that in theory i could pack up my gear as it stands and head out to play it live without it being far from the recordings. thats why i always play each track as a single take and start again if i mess up. i will catch up with the tech one day, but i still enjoy the neanderthal methods for now.

i may have something this time. i have been struggling musically recently, just not getting my head into more than messing around. really not liking the new keyboard, a casio ctk-631. the sounds seem cheap and flimsy if that makes sense. its either really plinky or so muddy you cant tell what chord your on. also the sustain cuts out randomly which makes a lot of sections and runs sound odd. its certainly not a patch on the yamaha i was using before. on the upside i got a new guitar, a cort kx-5, which is fantastic.
i have a rough idea which i have started on but the keyboard is really letting the side down. i will have something in this time but wether it gets anywhere near the sound i want will take a while of messing with the eq.

hmmn, i have never come across this before. i cant say that i found all that much of a difference overall. a couple of the tunes he played sounded a bit richer at 432hz but some seemed to ring a bit more at 440hz.
that said, it has piqued my interest with a couple of aspects of my own playing. i spent years living in the woods with no power (not for any pseudo-hippy reasons, i was working as a woodsman and i could live in the woods rent free so thats where i was) and as such i only really had my acoustic guitar for music. i noticed at the time that if i was to tune up without a tuner then it would always be just a little under standard, and i would be much more comfortable singing and i would get much more into my little sessions. i could spent weeks like that until someone else turned up and we had to tune up together and i would correct it. i always struggle to sing at a standard pitch, no so much that i cant warm up a little and get into it but its much more natural being a little bit under. again though, i imagine that everyone on earth has a slightly different comfort zone when singing. i may have to tune it down and experiment though, for interest sake.

hi folks, sorry for missing last month. had no end of hassles with BT after moving house and its only just gotten sorted.
either way, i have an entry here. i am chuffed with it personally as it seems to me a far cry from my earlier efforts with regards to structure and mixing. i went down a fairly poetic route route with it.
https://soundcloud.com/christofloffer/what-a-piece-of-work-is-a-man-2

i managed to squeeze in a quick track. the mixing is a bit rough and the mic recording isnt the best but we are in the midst of moving house so its a bit rushed through. my mate kenny jumped in and did a sax track for me though which was interesting. i would have liked to get things a bit more polished and redo a couple of things but time is against me this time so i am just happy to get something in.
https://soundcloud.com/christofloffer/from-the-ground-up

i make stuff in a pretty basic way. i do each track as a single playthrough, no loops or editing. whenever it try to fix things or edit things is somehow comes out a bit robotic. my gear is cheap, the biggest expense is my boss me-25 effects processor which acts as my line in to the pc. for software i have sonar LE (which actually came free with the boss processor) and it has a handful of effects on there like studioverb and EQ stuff which i use. hardware on this occasion was a naff old shine bass which i converted to fretless, an ailing westone guitar, and a yamaha psr-290 keyboard. pretty simple set up really. if i use drums then i have hydrogen drum machine which is free, and i really like. i also used to use audacity which is another free recording thing, i still use it now for converting to mp3 and things.
as for writing, i tend to listen to things which are in the style of the picture if nothing immediately springs to mind. i find it a great thing to make me try new styles and approaches. the looper on the boss pedal is great for trying out riffs and basslines.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1485797554' post='3226787']
Something I've long thought about in these here competitions is I'd like to know more about these guys who enter.
What gear do you all use?
Do you use a pro studio at work, or is it done at home on a studio held together with string and chewing-gum?
How long do you spend on it?
What's the creative process and how do you put it together?
How can somebody do this on a shoe-string budget?
Just wonderin'
[/quote]
good point, that kind of thing does tend to end up on the recording section thread or on the soundcloud description. it may be beneficial to do a quick post on the voting thread about our entries. i did notice a lot more votes coming in when dad was doing his write up/review thing. not that i would ask him to do that, just focus on getting better dad. perhaps a little something in the general section thread would add a little interest to go along with our tracks.

i got something, though not what i originally intended. with kit going wrong and my room really not being cut out for mic recording i had to lean rather heavily on the keyboard and bass. so i ended up with a bit of soundtrack rather than the folky type thing i started with. i wanted to something in open C tuning, which fits the wild west idea in many ways. but mic recordings were awful and full of other noise and plugging it in has this annoying popping sound.
anyway, as its soundtrack allow me to set the scene. it is supposed to fit the cowboy coming home after weeks of travelling. so as he clears the ridge in the picture he sees his homestead with his family running around. maybe a little soppy but that is what went through my mind as i was building it up and i dont think its a million miles off. it is short but hopefully has enough going on to not be too repetitive. i am just happy to get something done in the midst of moving house and things.
https://soundcloud.com/christofloffer/back-to-the-homestead

i always love, as i am sure practically everyone does, finding new music to listen to. even better when we find a song or tune which seems to strike some kind of resonance with us. i find that as i get older and keep learning about music and songwriting that songs like this stay with me longer. when we are younger our fancies are more shortlived, how many songs were the best thing ever at the time and little more than nostalgia now. obviously those precious few never leave us, but plenty vanish.
i was recently introduced to brian eno, most specifically the eno/john cale album "wrong way up". a lot of people had recommended eno to me before and i was aware that he is a man who knows his craft, i just never got around to it. i really like that album, not every song is a favourite but the album is a good listen if you like that genre. it has been a welcome inclusion to my music and given as i have a particular fondness for instrumental and ambient music, eno is proving to be an interesting rabbit hole to check out.
in my opinion though, "spinning away" is just fantastic. one of the very rare songs that despite countless listens over the last couple of months its has lost none of its potency and has even gotten better. picking a song apart to learn to play it usually kills a tune, maybe not entirely but it often loses a bit of its magic. spinning away hasnt done that though, its easily shot into my top 3 songs, and i think its a masterclass of song construction.
so in an effort to maybe come across some more tunes and find some more rabbit holes to explore. what was the last song you heard which really spoke to you?

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1483892197' post='3210903']
I was just reviewing my Soundlcoud page and realised that there are at 30 compositions on there that would not have been written were it not for these challenges. The quality is distictly variable, of course, but the learning has been invaluable. One wonders how many tunes have been written across the Basschat fraternity because of this. Whoever had the idea for this thread is a frickin' genius.
[/quote]
couldnt agree more, getting involved with this little challenge has given me a reason to write things. i have been messing for years for my own pleasure but it was mostly just putting ideas in the bank for possible future use. having a definitive focus is great and has pushed me to get a better understanding of my gear and to try out some different genres. as is evidenced by my entries i still have loads to learn but i am a lot happier to try. for someone who doesnt play in bands and has no wish to gig its great for my efforts to have a point beyond getting ideas out of my head only to sit gathering digital dust in some forgotten hard drive folder.
i may be unleashing my inner geek a little, but isnt that a screenshot from red dead redemption? not that that would be a bad thing, that game has some great musical moments.
got a couple of ideas, a bit limited by the gear at the moment. for some reason my electric acoustic has developed an irritating popping sound that shows up randomly to ruin a take. dont know why, obviously the electrics are giving out. not having much luck with my gear at the moment . so i am down to the mic for recording the acoustic which is always a faff. i will figure something out though.

i doubt copyright will be an issue provided you are not trying to sell the music. if its taken down after the comp too then its of little consequence. if someone covered a tune of mine for their own enjoyment i wouldnt take issue with it. if someone was trying to earn from my efforts then i would be a bit more aggravated. i definitely agree that turning downloads off is a good call, and give credit where its due. probably a good idea not to tag basschat on it too as its up to us if we do anything or not.
its sad that people cant just enjoy playing music for the fun of it without worrying about legal issues like this. if someone tells me to remove it then i would without hesitation until then though i wont worry about it. i am not trying to profit from someone elses work, just getting feedback on my playing through a bit of friendly competition.
i think my particular choice is public domain anyway. it is my take on a section of pachelbel's canon in D. i think this may be a different key though, i really dont know. thanks to my current issues i have gone for a bass only rendition and as basic as i could. its a tune i use when i am just idling away with whatever instrument i have handy.
https://soundcloud.com/christofloffer/bass-canon

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1480860122' post='3187592']
[size=5][color=#800000][b]>>> NEWSFLASH <<<[/b][/color][/size]
[b]For this month only, we're welcoming any cover songs that have been recorded during 2016[/b] (rather than only during December). Hopefully this will open up the challenge to plenty of newcomers. And feck it... it's the festive season so I'm feeling generous, and I haven't even started on the sherry
[/quote]
thats a relief, at least i have a couple in the bank.
i have been trying to get something together but i have been plagued by problems with my guitar. i changed the strings and gave it a clean and it seems to have released pressure in the neck somewhere and now the truss rod is jammed solid and i cannot get the intonation anywhere close to usable. for lead stuff its not really to obvious but chords are tooth-grinding levels of bad. i think it is pretty dead to be honest, a new neck at the very least by the look of it or maybe just replace it it with something of a bit higher quality. of course this has had a pretty negative effect on writing and recording. that said, i have a bass only thing which may come through yet.

i wont be getting anything in this month. been very lacking in inspiration recently and far from in a state of mind to make music. everything i did try was very dark and i didnt like that. hopefully next month i will be in a better place and more inclined to put the effort in.

apologies if this is in the wrong section, there isnt a technical bit for the guitar section and i figured this is more applicable.
i replaced the strings on my electric guitar today and found an issue. the nut fell off when i had the strings off. this is an issue i have had for about 6 years now as a friend (not much of a friend now) was carrying my guitar and despite my carefully telling him to carry it properly he was swinging it around by the strap and dropped it. after a lot of shouting and a quick exit from the friend i picked up the pieces to find that the nut had been snapped and the selector switch bent. other than a few scrapes that was the worst of it but it has plagued me ever since. i got a new one and glued it down and it was ok for a while but the glue fatigued and came away. then after another repair it was flexing a little when tuning, something which manifested in rapid wear of the nut slots and poor tuning stability. now the current nut has worn the same again and the glue has failed again.
so i am thinking of replacing it with something a little more substantial. i am thinking along the lines of a roller nut or a height adjustable locking nut. these would both be screwed in and therefore more reliable and less problematic.
my concern with the roller nut is if it would be high enough as the dimensions given in descriptions seem to refer to the overall height and not the height that the string would sit. also i dont know if they are worth it as its two strings to a roller so it would still scrub during tuning.
the locking nut is currently my favourite. namely for the sturdy construction and the added adjustment at that end. some people say that they are supposed to be used as well as a normal nut though, so i dont know if it would work.
it has only had plastic ones before but they sit at the end of the neck rather than in a slot which is why the glue doesnt work. it has no support at the back it just struggles to stay in place now so a screwed in one would be a better permanent fix.
the only issue with the screwed ones is that they would cover a portion of the access to the truss rod. that too has its own issues and seems stuck but i will investigate that as i guess it cant be removed without lifting the fretboard. at which point i may as well get a new neck.
thoughts and advice are very appreciated as i am a little stuck without having any experience of either type or anything more than replacing like for like. i am fairly handy so have no fears of the work involved, i just want to do the right job once and not mess about.